Gathering and collecting eggs manually within a hen or laying house is obviously very inefficient as the same is a time consuming and laborious job. In addition, the eggs are often not very clean, there are significant floor eggs, and the overall quality of the eggs leaves something to be desired. In the case of hatching eggs, the hatching rate is often less optimum where the eggs are gathered and collected manually.
In recent years, many poultry laying houses have moved to some type of cage or nest system such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,306,259; 3,139,065; 3,107,652; and 2,710,682. These have generally increased the efficiency of egg collection as well as the overall quality of the eggs. But many of these systems are complex, expensive, difficult to install and move within the laying house and even difficulty to clean and maintain. Quite often in such conventional systems the main frame or support structure, the respective nest, and the conveying systems are designed and installed separately, which can result in the overall system being structurally over-designed which gives rise to the fact that many of these systems are relatively expensive.